


Fledglings

by FeelsandFollies



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Gender Identity, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-15 20:19:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1317901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeelsandFollies/pseuds/FeelsandFollies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a Tumblr post wondering what if Bethany and Carver were Identical Twins. Basically it will be four drabbles looking at the relationship of each twin with the family if they were Trans*  with both a Male and Female Hawke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Carver and Garrett

**Author's Note:**

> http://broscaa.tumblr.com/post/79231804144/antivanrogue-what-if-carver-and-bethany-were  
> Here is the post I drew my inspiration from.  
> This first chapter is Carver's life with Male Hawke.

Garrett was always a paragon of masculinity. Resolute in his gender identity while Carver struggled with his own so much. 

He eventually managed to come to terms with himself and told his family. They were all accepting even if Leandra struggled for a time but she soon came around to having another son.

Even past all this though Carver had trouble being a man. Or at least the one he wanted to be. Garrett seemed to do everything so much easier than he did. It all seemed effortless. For Carver it was a struggle against his body. He had to work twice as hard to get as far as his brother did. He used a greatsword simply to help shape his body as he needed. 

Garrett was a mage and training his body wasn’t a necessity like for a warrior. Carver had no such luxury. He got up at the break of dawn each day, exercised till he ached and watched what he ate. He tried so hard just to stay as he wanted to be. His brother didn’t do half as much as Carver and the difference barely showed.

Carver sometimes felt less even in face of his effort. But he found some support in Bethany. She was still his twin and understood him better than any other. She was his confidant and sounding board for his fears. He gave her his secrets and she gave him confidence. In doing so he helped her to build her own. Carver was the first to rush to his sister’s side when a Templar wandered by.

Still she would drag him off on little adventures. She never suffocated him. The way that home did. They were comfortable with each other She didn't have the luxury of striking out on her own. It was hard being an apostate and she relished the time with her brother as well.

Malcolm was excited to have another son but he still spent much of his time training Bethany and Garrett. He found a connection with Carver outside of magic. The comfort of conversation and comfortable silence. Carver took after his Father in a lot of ways. 

Every time Malcolm met with contacts from the Mage Underground he would ask after enchantments to affect appearance. Something to ease the anxieties that preyed on his youngest son. But he was never successful, not many Tranquil were involved in the Underground.

It was Garrett who finally finished this quest of his Father, as he did with everything else. The enchanting dwarf Sandal was residing in his home and he asked him to fashion an enchantment. He set it into his father’s belt. It would bring those attributes Carver grasped and strove for to the front. 

Carver saw him walking into the Gallows courtyard. He was so assured even in this place. A mage in a house of swords. He took his brother to the side. 

When Garrett gave him the belt he was floored. It meant more to him than the enchantment, grateful for that as he was. It was the tie to home that mattered. A connection with his brother that he had struggled with. A connection with being a Hawke. With all those Hawkes who didn’t remain. 

He strapped his belt on and felt right. He hugged his brother and walked back to to the other Templars. His gait more assured with each step.


	2. Bethany And Marian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Trans*Bethany's relationship with a female Hawke.

Marian didn't care about what people thought of her. She was so different from Bethany in that regard. Bethany who always had to be so aware of how others saw her. If Marian wanted to fight she would fight. She was never concerned with the expectation of femininity. Bethany could count on both hands the number of times that her sister had worn a dress.

Bethany used to steal the little articles that mother would leave for Marian. Things like dresses or a blouses. She would squirrel away and put them on when she was alone at home. Bethany always kept her hair long but tied back in public. In private she would decorate it in stolen ribbons and glory in how it made her feel. Marian stumbled upon her once and simply winked. "You can raid my closet any time, just ask first.”

She smiled shyly back her older sister who was so hard to rattle.

Carver would sometimes sit around with her sister in her personal moments. They kept few secrets from one another. He would call her sister and tell her what suited her. Marian would pop in to harass them from time to time but she always slipped a reassurance in between her teasing.

Malcolm was unaware for the longest time, he was an oblivious man even though he spent so much time in his daughter’s presence. He was too wrapped up in the concerns of apostasy. Leandra was a little more astute. Time in high society had left her with a much more expanded mind. More so than her husband had in the Circle or on the run.

She waited knowing her daughter well enough. Knowing she would tell them when she was ready. Besides she wanted some funds saved up for her when she did.

When Bethany told them Leandra just smiled at her daughter. The she offered to go shopping for clothes saying her daughter should wear something to flatter her more. Marian begrudgingly accompanied them, complaining all the way. Still she smiled at her sister and mother gazing appreciatively at the stalls.

 


	3. Carver and Marian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trans* Carver's relationship with Female Hawke

Carver remember doing "girly" things with his sisters for a time but that was his Mother’s prerogative. Leandra had fond memories of her childhood and she wanted her children to have the same joy she remembered. Both Carver and Marian grew out of these accoutrements. 

Marian seemed so comfortable leaving them behind and overall in her own skin. She never judged herself as Carver did. He was jealous of her certainty. She was He was often confused himself.

He started to join his sister in her training. Using one of her old blades, dull from use. He impulsively cut his hair short one day claiming that it was getting in the way. Marian just smiled and teased him, “We’ll see if it makes a difference”. It didn’t but it was still worth it to Carver

Leandra was shocked at the jagged cut of the hair but she didn't raise a fuss. Her children were too unpredictable to be truly surprised. It was months later when it had not changed at all that she wondered. Bethany had blossomed in puberty in ways that women do as did Marian but Carver was solid. His shoulders were broad from training with his great sword. His arms were reliable aids for work around the house.

Her husband smiled at her questions, both of them unsure of how to broach the subject. Soon they settled on asking Bethany. The twins were close and their parents assumed that either would be the most aware of the other.

Bethany told her parents she wasn't sure about her brother but that he was happier now than he had been before. She talked about how he smiled quicker and slept better. Leandra and Malcolm decided that they would wait comfortable in the fact that Carver was at peace with himself.

Oddly it was Marian was the first to know truly. She was blunt and simply asked her brother directly. He was still panting after that last bout, won in his favour. He asked her to call him brother. She smiled and said, “ Alright brother, best two out of three.” 

He grinned and charged at her.

As always she was unfazed. But for once Carver was happy for having a sister like Marian. It didn’t stay that way. She won the next two fights. Carver still felt that he had walked away the victor anyway.

 


	4. Bethany and Garrett

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The relationship between Trans*Bethany and MHawke.

Garrett was always told to watch after his brothers. He would traipse after Bethany and Carver throughout their day. Bethany chafed under his constant presence. At first she thought that like Carver she wanted some independence, that her oldest brother was hampering her. But even when she was alone she got little respite from her tension.

She later realized that it was the words from her parents that chafed more. They would pick at her mind and draw out her tension.

"Get your brothers.” 

"Where are your brothers?” 

"Watch your brothers.”

It was an affirmation of what felt so wrong.

Her Father and Mother saw the stress in her. Malcolm made a point to take her for more training. Bethany was skilled and she poured her frustration into her magic. Nothing clears the mind like a well placed fireball. 

But she also found comfort with her Mother. Leandra doted on Bethany, who was closer than the independent Garrett and Carver. They could spend hours walking through the village together in both silence and excited conversation. Leandra never pushed her daughter for her secrets. She hadn't stayed married a man like Malcolm without realizing that some people desire they're own counsel more than they could want others.

Garrett and Carver were overprotective of Bethany. She was the only mage out of the siblings. Her brothers were aware of how tenuous their sister’s freedom was and so they went to every extent to protect that.

Carver was close to Bethany. He could sit with his sister and was the first to hear the little stories she observed in the village. More than a few times had he been dragged after Bethany as she rushed off to see the latest drama in the village.

Garrett had a distance from Bethany. The gap in their ages made a difference. He looked at his sister and remembered her as a child, remembered when she first discovered magic. He was acutely aware of how vulnerable she was. As a younger boy Garret had gotten into a fair share of fights over Bethany. He stopped that once she knocked out the Oswick boy who had let his mouth run away with him.

When she finally opened up to her family about how she felt she received little change. They spoke to her the same but with little substitutions to words. She still spent time training with her father and talking with her mother. She just did so in more comfortable skin. 

And she found she didn’t mind having her older brother nearby anymore.


End file.
